Residents protest 40B plan for wetland area

Charlie Whiting doesn't believe good things always come in small packages. Whiting, of 8 Arlington Road, and nearly two dozen others, packed into the selectmen's meeting last night to protest a 40B project they say is using the affordable-housing law to circumvent town bylaws to build on protected wetlands.

[Smokestack Lightning]

He was disbarred by the US Supreme Court, and has done jail time for stealing from his clients.

Why is Joe Shanahan still allowed to practice law?

I see he's up to the same shady crap he pulled when he built the Meadows on wetlands, using 40B as a lever.

[CHS mom]

It's projects like this where I wish Ruth Luna was still on the Conservation Commission. She used to eat guys like this for light mid-afternoon snacks. The tough part is, the area for the driveway has been previously disturbed, and where it's under 5000 feet of disturbance, the town has very little defense on behalf of protecting the wetland, DEP might not even defend it, although ethically, they should. Someone needs to throw a rare lizard or turtle in there-that'll slow them down. The argument that more buildings would be coming was interesting. But Joe had a point, where would they put them?

[Seymorebutts]

tell then to scrap their plans and build it in billerica you can built anywhere in town no problem, maybe build a floating 40b out in the middle of nuttings lake?

[Smokestack Lightning]

When Shanahan and then Conservation Commission Chairman McBride built The Meadows, they filled in the wetlands, then dug a mosquito-breeding pool in the middle of the development. The same technology would doubtless serve in this new project.

[Question]

Is this the same Joseph Shanahan, disbarred on 1/29/02?

[Bob]

Call in ELF

[Smokestack Lightning]

Question wrote:

Is this the same Joseph Shanahan, disbarred on 1/29/02?

Actually, that's a good question. I assumed it was, because the MO was the same. I suppose it could be a different Joe Shanahan. Does anyone here know?

[CHS mom]

Yes indeed, it is the same person. The man successfully spun things in his favor, kind of like Tylenol did in the eighties with that contaminated aspirin situation. He's no longer a practicing attorney, but a personal representative.

[Question]

CHS Mom, Very interesting. I see that he refers to his business as "Shanahan and Associates"
(http://documents.chelmsford.k12.ma.us/dsweb/G...
any URL available to get more information, on this operation?

[Smokestack Lightning]

CHS mom wrote:

Yes indeed, it is the same person. The man successfully spun things in his favor, kind of like Tylenol did in the eighties with that contaminated aspirin situation. He's no longer a practicing attorney, but a personal representative.

And yet, the article says:

Kohl's attorney, Joseph Shanahan, said Kohl is seeking to build the two, three-bedroom units on 12,000 feet of upland.

Is it really impossible for the Lowell Sun to fact-check its articles?

[Smokestack Lightning]

Ah - I see the Sun has put up a correction.
http://www.lowellsun.com/local/ci_13347694

Joseph Shanahan Jr. is a property development advisor in Chelmsford, who is a former attorney. Shanahan was misrepresented in an article published in yesterday's Sun. He no longer practices law.

A "property development advisor." Now the question is, what kind of people pay for advice from such a person?

[CHS mom]

I don't know if he has a website, but he's representing the people selling their place on Graniteville rd, and the people that wanted to split their lot on North Rd. to sell to a developer. So he's keeping plenty busy. He's a personable guy, people like him, and apparently, he can still get the job done. What I want to know, is where are those SGI guys that are always mouthing off about 40B's????

[Board of Bar Overseers]

he's a convicted felon (perjury if i recall correctly); who would want to be represented by him?

[Smokestack Lightning]

Maybe the people who like him should take another look at his history.
http://www.mass.gov/obcbbo/bd01-055.htm

IN RE: JOSEPH B. SHANAHAN JR.

S.J.C. Judgment of Disbarment entered by Justice Sosman on January 24, 2002.1

SUMMARY2

On October 26, 2001, the respondent was convicted in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts of one count of bankruptcy fraud in violation of U.S.C.§ 152(a). He was sentenced to twelve months and one day imprisonment followed by two years of supervised release and fined $3,000. The conduct giving rise to the conviction concerned the respondent’s deliberate failure to disclose in his personal bankruptcy petition, statements of financial affairs, and in sworn testimony at a creditors’ meeting that his children and a corporation he had formed and controlled owed him $10,000 for an option to purchase certain valuable real estate in the town of Chelmsford.

http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/...

A former attorney from Chelmsford was convicted last week in federal court of four counts of fraud relating to the theft of more than $840,000 belonging to former clients.

Joseph B. Shanahan Jr., 52, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Rya W. Zobel to two counts of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud and one count of interstate transportation of stolen property, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Boston and the local office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which investigated the case.